Crew Blog

Modesty preserved

06 January 2008

The flying fish are back with a vengeance! After leg 1, when we had to do a deck walk at night to rid the boat of smelly carcasses, we have hardly seen any at all. But yesterday the showers of fish returned, this time during daylight hours, which at least gave us a fighting chance of retrieving them before they were too far gone. One enterprising creature even managed to leap straight down the companionway, which provided the mothers with some unexpected entertainment.

We nearly had an unfortunate “undies overboard” situation today. During the night a series of containers were handed from the galley up the companionway to empty their food waste contents overboard. The final one, a large saucepan, was accompanied by Liz and Ricky, our ever helpful skipper, offered to throw it overboard for her. She was somewhat reluctant to let him take it, and after some stammering it became clear why - she had just washed her smalls and had been planning on hanging them out under cover of darkness! No doubt she will soon lose any sense of modesty and sink to the same level as the rest of us.

Talking of modesty, Jan N provided half the crew with some light relief when he decided to test out our solar shower on deck. It should be noted that we have had this shower since Liverpool and nobody has yet used it, which gives you some idea about the cleanliness of the crew! The spinnaker pole served as an ideal support, although there were a few moments of uncertainty as to what knot to use to attach it - a quick flick through our handy book of knots failed to describe a knot for this purpose. It was remarkable to see how quickly the news spread that there was something happening on deck - a veritable crowd of paparazzi rushed up the companionway, cameras at the ready. It’s strange, when Ricky announces an imminent sail change he never gets this kind of instant response (he does get an instant response, but in the other direction, when all those not on standby or on watch scrabble to get into their bunks and put their leecloths up before they are roped into the action). In spite of the cameras surrounding him, Jan maintained both dignity and modesty and announced he will be repeating the process on a daily basis.

New members of the crew can usually be relied on to provide some welcome entertainment to those who have been onboard a little longer. One crew member who shall remain nameless, only discovered after six days on board that she can crank her bunk up to counter the heel - prior to this discovery she had been using her pilates exercises to try to prevent herself from being deposited on the other side of the boat. Now that she has a new toy she is busily cranking her bunk up and down and is as happy as a sandboy.